18 August 2000

Telkom, the telecommunications utility, had an obligation to train its people to be very highly skilled, given the high level of technology around, Essop Pahad, the minister in the office of the president, said yesterday.

Speaking at the official launch of Telkom's education campaign on employment equity, Pahad said employment equity and affirmative action often invoked different kinds of responses which had to be understood from a political perspective.

"The majority of our people faced a systematic denial of skills and denial in this country, most of which was statutory. If we are serious about employment equity, then we would have to start from the beginning, and balance the scales with women, Africans and the disabled," said Pahad.

Sizwe Nxasana, Telkom's chief executive said: "We started negotiations with organised labour on an affirmative action policy in 1991, and our first policy was adopted in 1993. With the introduction of the Employment Equity A ...